US Century Bank
NASDAQ:USCB
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Good morning, and welcome to the USCB Financial Holdings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded.
I would like now to turn the conference over to Mr. Luis de la Aguilera, President and CEO of the company. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for USCB Financial Holdings 2023 First Quarter Earnings Call. With me today reviewing our Q1 highlights is CFO, Rob Anderson; and Chief Credit Officer, Ben Pazos, who will provide an overview of the bank's performance, the highlights of which you can see on Slide 3.
Well, what a difference a quarter makes. Who would have imagined that just 6 weeks after our last earnings call, 3 banks would have suddenly failed, heightening client concerns about the safety and soundness of the banking industry and intensifying discussions on inflation, liquidity, uninsured deposit ratios, any potential recession? Banking is based on confidence and clients look for guidance and support during stressful economic times. It is critical to maintain our clients' trust and we see the moment as an opportunity to further interact with them to strengthen and grow their relationships, more on that shortly. Despite these challenges, we are pleased to announce that the USCB team delivered strong performance in the first quarter of 2023, reflecting our ability to navigate a challenging operating environment with prudent consistency.
Our financial results demonstrate robust earnings driven by solid loan production, disciplined credit underwriting and risk management practices. Over the past 6 years, we have focused on diversifying our loan portfolio by developing multiple non-CRE business lines, which are delivering in a meaningful way. Actually, 64% of the bank's Q1 loan production was non-CRE, and we expect that trend to continue. Our deposits are derived primarily from local businesses, their owners and the communities we serve. We do not have any exposure to either cryptocurrencies or investments or to crypto-related businesses. We are a commercial bank, and our strength and stability is reinforced by growing core customer relationships, enabling us to build a granular deposit base and diversified loan portfolio and one of the fastest-growing markets in Florida and the United States.
As we review our Q1 2023 highlights, let's start by comparing our results to those posted in the first quarter of 2022. Average deposits increased by $194 million or 11.8% compared to the first quarter of last year. Average loans, excluding PPP loans, increased $137 million or 31.4% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Tangible book value per share was $9.37, including an after-tax unrealized security loss impact of $2.14. The Net income was $5.8 million or $0.29 per diluted share, an increase of $1 million or 19.7% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Annualized return on average asset for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, was 1.11% compared to 1.03% for the first quarter of 2022. Annualized return on average stockholders' equity for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, was 12.85% compared to 9.75% for the first quarter of the previous year.
The efficiency ratio for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, was 56.32% compared to 58.88% for the first quarter of last year. Credit metrics remain strong. Nonperforming loans to total loans was 0.03% at March 31, 2023, compared to 0 at March 31 of last year, with a single loan for $486,000 classified as nonperforming. The allowance for credit losses represented a 1.20% of total loans, both at the March 31, 2023, and March 31 of last year. Effectively, as of March -- as of January 1 of this year, the company adopted the CECL methodology for estimating credit losses, which resulted in an increase to the allowance for credit losses for loans of $1.1 million and an increase to the reserve for unfunded commitments of $259,000. This onetime cumulative adjustment resulted in an after-tax decrease of $1 million in retained earnings.
During the quarter, the company repurchased 500,000 shares of U.S. TB Financial Holdings, Inc. at a weighted average price per share of $11.74. The aggregate purchase price for these transactions was approximately $5.9 million, including transaction costs. These open market repurchases were made pursuant to the company's publicly announced repurchase program. As of March 31, 23, 250,000 shares remain to be repurchased under the program. The following page is self-explanatory, directionally showing 9 select historical financial trends since our recapitalization. Profitable performance based on sound and contributive risk management is what our team is focused on consistently delivering.
So now let's turn our attention to our specific financial results and key performance indicators, which will be reviewed by our CFO, Rob Anderson.
Thank you, Luis, and Good morning, everyone. In looking at our financial statements and by many measures, U.S. Century Bank had another great quarter. Let me highlight a few items on the next couple of pages before getting into specific details. First, total assets were $2.2 billion for the quarter. Loan balances were $1.6 billion, which is up $73 million from the prior quarter, and deposits are at $1.8 billion. At quarter end, we had $416 million in securities like most banks in the industry today, these securities were put on the books during the pandemic period of very low interest rates. As interest rates have taken a fast and sharp rise, these securities now have a negative mark due to the mark-to-mark accounting treatment.
Total equity is now $184 million, up slightly from $182 million in Q4. And although footnoted on the slide, the $184 million in equity includes $42.1 million in unrealized losses on the securities portfolio running through AOCI. Moving on to the P&L. Net interest income decreased from the prior quarter due to higher deposit costs and our noninterest income of $2.1 million reflects the execution of SBA loan sales. The bank implemented CECL in the quarter and booked $201,000 provision expense with loan growth. Additionally, our day 1 CECL implementation resulted in a $1.1 million increase to our loan loss reserve, which we ran through retained earnings. On a GAAP basis, net income was $5.8 million or $0.29 a share.
And with that, let's take a quick look at our performance indicators on the next page. In terms of soundness, our credit metrics remained strong. Our loan loss reserve coverage ratio increased with the adoption of CECL at 1.20%, and Ben will discuss our credit book in more detail in a bit. In terms of profitability, our return on average assets was 1.11% for the quarter and return on average equity was 12.85%. Our NIM was down 23 basis points from the quarter to 3.22% driven by a higher cost of funding.
Efficiency ratio was 56.32% and our tangible book value per share moved up slightly to $9.37 per share, which is reflective of the negative mark of $2.14 per share on our securities portfolio and AOCI that I referenced earlier and the stock repurchases in the quarter. Absent the AOCI mark, our tangible book value per share would have been $11.51. Let's hit on liquidity on the next page. During the month of March, our industry saw 3 notable banks fail and liquidity became a headline issue across the industry. The Federal Reserve created a new liquidity program to make additional funding available to depository institutions. We have enrolled in the bank term funding program or BTFP, but have not accessed the program and do not intend to access the program anytime soon. Our on-balance sheet liquidity is in excess of $413 million, and our off-balance sheet sources excluding brokered CDs is in the excess of $228 million.
We continue to beef up our pledging of both loans and securities, and our liquidity sources have expanded post quarter end. Additionally, U.S. Century Bank has access to the brokered CD market and listing CDs, which we have self-imposed policy limits on these products and are not listed on the chart. If we include all sources of wholesale funding, our self-imposed liquidity limits are in excess of $500 million of funding, which we believe is sufficient to weather the current environment. So with that, let's take a look at our deposit book on the next page. Average deposits increased $40.4 million or 9.1% annualized compared to the prior quarter and $194 million or 11.8% compared to the first quarter of 2022.
Average DDA deposits increased $10.5 million or 6.5% annualized compared to the prior quarter and increased $38 million or 6.1% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Average DDA balances comprised 36% of total deposits during the quarter and is consistent with the prior quarter. You may note that USC B did not experience the mix shift that seems prevalent with other institutions today. We believe this speaks to the strength of our deposit base. Also, you will notice that quarter end spot balance of $1.831 billion is below our quarterly average of $1.844 billion. We had numerous conversations with clients in the last 2 weeks of March, who are concerned about the events happening within the industry.
While a few clients decided to minimize their balances with USCB, I'm happy to report that we did not lose any clients due to these events, and we had a few clients place their deposits into the Intrafi, ICS and CDARS product, which provides the depositor with insurance on every dollar of their deposit. To that point, we had $35.7 million in ICS CDARS at quarter end, and some clients have continued to put more in the ICS product post quarter end. As it relates to the cost of our deposit book, we continue to see increases relative to the Fed funds rate increases but remain with a 24% deposit beta through the current rate cycle. So let's take a closer look at the deposit book on the next slide.
Our deposit book reflects our business model, a diversified commercial bank. 54% of our deposits are commercial or business accounts, 35% personal or retail accounts and 11% public fund accounts, which are partially collateralized. The bank has 19,200 deposit accounts with the majority in personal accounts, 12,400 or 64.4% of the total. As you can see by the chart on the lower left, the average balance in the business count is 145,000, 52,000 in a personal account and $7.1 million in a public fund account. The total amount of uninsured deposits adjusted by the collateralized portion of public funds is 56% for quarter end, a decrease of 3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 and below the 2022 average so far. We anticipate this number to come down or more significantly next quarter as we continue to place clients in the ICS product post quarter end.
With that, let me turn it back to Lu.
Thank you, Rob. As seen on the graph on Slide 10. Average loans for Q1 2023, excluding PPP loans, increased $90.6 million or $25.2 million annualized compared to the prior quarter and $370 million or 31.4% compared to the first quarter of 2022. As a competitive relationship-driven bank, we price based on risk and relationship. To this point, we note that loan coupons increased 32 basis points compared to the prior quarter and 107 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2022. Notwithstanding our loan growth or yields, our focus is on quality and ongoing risk assessment and management.
Our Chief Credit Officer, will be reviewing our portfolio mix, detailing our CRE concentrations by loan type, weighted average loan-to-value and debt service coverage as well as average loan size. Here, you will note the low leverage, strong repayment and diversified nature of this portfolio. Furthermore, we will take a look -- a close look at the bank's CRE office portfolio. Following the Covid pandemic, there has been a significant course correction in the office sector, as the industry evaluates how office buildings will be used, repriced, valued and transacted, again, conservative underwriting and risk management guide our choice of selection and all our CRE asset classes.
As seen on the graph on Page 11, the strong loan production posted throughout 2022 slowed over the past 4 quarters as the Fed increased rates 425 basis points from March to March. Over this time, higher borrowing costs have impacted loan demand, specifically CRE loan demand and refinancing. The bank delivered or exceeded budget over the past 5 quarters, and we were forecasted to do so throughout 2023. Excluding PPP loans, our point-to-point loan growth for 2022 ran at 31.4%.
As an effect of the Fed's monetary policy, which has led to higher rates and decreased loan demand, we expect high single-digit to low double-digit growth in 2023. Still the average coupon for new loans increased to 6.66% for Q1 2023, 152 basis points above the portfolio average. As previously noted, 64% of the first quarter's loan production, totaling $94 million was well diversified and non-CRE. This shift was due toward development and diversification of new product lines, namely HOA, SBA and correspondent bank lending as well as equipment and yacht financing, all of which are in strong demand in South Florida.
With that said, let me turn things over to Ben.
Thank you, Luis, and Good morning to all. our loan portfolio mix, as detailed in Slide 12 has not changed appreciably from the numbers you have seen before. On our book of $1.580 billion, CRE loans amount to $988 million, and this includes owner-occupied loans. Our biggest concentration is in the retail segment with $298 million. I'm happy to report that as at the end of quarter 1 and even up to today, asset quality is excellent. The CRE book has conservative metrics across all segments. -- weighted average loan-to-values ranging from 54% to 62%. That service covered ranging from 140 to 2.62 times and average loan size is conservatively low, ranging from $1 million to $4.6 million.
Moving to Slide 13. We have information on our COE Office segment. The numbers you see in this slide confirms the CRE office is not among our largest CRE segments. Nonowner-occupied office loans are just 13% of the of the CRE loans and 8% of total loans. We do have 3% of our total loans in the owner-occupied bucket that are office related. Key metrics for office loans in both the nonowner-occupied bucket and the owner-occupied bucket are 120 notes totaling 173 million -- and they are -- or they have a weighted average loan balance of $1.4 million, weighted average loan-to-values of 57% and an average debt service coverage of 2.1x. In addition to what we said before for our retail loans, asset quality is very good. Most importantly, maturities within a year are just 4% of the office book.
Moving to Slide 14. Asset quality continues to be very good, reflecting conservative underwriting and prudent risk management. Our ACL coverage stands at 120%. The bank implemented the CECL methodology starting January 1 of this year. The implementation of CECL led to an initial increase of $1.1 million in the ALLL and the subsequent increase as a result of the loan growth. After several quarters with [indiscernible] nonaccrual loans, we placed 486,000 loan in this category in quarter 1. We do continue with no [ arrears ] and none anticipated going forward. Our classified asset book is negligible, and that results in a ratio of classified loans to dollar loans of just 0.25%.
Going to Slide 15, Rob will talk about our NIM.
Okay. Thank you, Ben. Net interest income decreased by $869,000 compared to prior quarter, predominantly due to an increase in deposit costs. Our net interest margin compressed 23 basis points to 3.22%. Our earning asset mix continues to improve towards higher earning assets, even though we held higher levels of cash and increased our FHLB advances at quarter end given the heightened attention on liquidity. With approximately $50 million of cash flows rolling off our securities portfolio this year, we will have the opportunity to reinvest those funds into higher-yielding assets, and we fully expect our team to grow our deposit book despite a challenging environment.
Let's take a look at our interest rate sensitivity. According to our asset liability model, our balance sheet is liability sensitive for year 1 and asset sensitive for year 2. This is a direct result of higher money market and saving account balances and having a higher portfolio of variable rate loan portfolio repricing in year 2. Furthermore, the yield curve shape has also had an impact on the magnitude of the repricing. Under an inverted yield curve, our liabilities, in particular money market accounts and short-term borrowings are repricing faster and higher than our assets, which increases our liability sensitivity in the short term.
While our through-the-cycle deposit beta remains near our stated range of 25% to 35%, going forward and given expectation on the yield curves, current and future shape and our current balance sheet composition, we expect further NIM compression going forward. So with that, let's move on to the next page. We had very solid quarter of noninterest income. Service fees were steady, and we are excited about some new initiatives to move this number up in the coming quarters. SBA fees were consistent from prior quarters, and we saw very little movement in our securities book this quarter. With fees straightforward, let's take a look at our expenses. Our total expense base was $10.2 million and slightly up from the prior quarter.
Salaries and benefits were up with a few new hires and seasonal increases in payroll taxes. The remaining line items were in line with prior quarters, so not much to highlight here, so let's take a look at capital. Capital levels remain above well-capitalized levels but came down a bit as the company repurchased 500,000 shares at an average weighted price of $11.74. I would also mention that these purchases happened prior to the banking events, which further depressed bank stocks at quarter end. The company has 250,000 shares remaining under the current authorization, and you'll notice AOCI improved by $2.7 million in the quarter.
With capital straightforward, I will turn it back to Lu for some closing comments.
Thank you, Rob. U.S. Century Bank closed the first quarter of 2023 directionally as forecasted, responding with consistency to both the expected challenges of rising interest rates and the unexpected liquidity pressures caused by prices of confidence and a perceived flight to safety that has impacted most banks. Team USCB took the situation and created an opportunity, taking immediate action by reaching out to our clients to proactively explain the situation, hear the concerns and provide solutions. Every relationship manager contacted their top depository clients in the first week, many hundreds of contracts were made. This effort was very much in line with the new business mining project launched in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The project is led by teams of lenders and business development officers who are, in effect, contacting and further developing the deposit and business potential of existing customers. This high-touch business mining initiative was designed to expand our share of wallet with nonlending transaction banking products to deepen relationships, and our efforts are delivering consistent results. Even in challenging times, U.S. Century is advantageously located in one of the most attractive banking markets in Florida and the U.S. Our state is the third largest in population and the fourth largest economy in the country with 900 net new residents arriving in Florida every day and an estimated population of $26 million by 2023, Florida is primed for continuous growth.
I mentioned earlier how 64% of our first quarter loan production was non-CRE related. Pivoting in this manner was not done by chance. It has taken time, talent and planning to develop new non-CRE lending verticals in a state where businesses are largely real estate denominated. Higher interest rates lead to higher borrowing costs, slowing CRE demand and the number of quality financing opportunities. Over the last 5 years, we have developed strong competencies in association lending, SBA lending and most recently, yacht lending, all of which are in strong demand in Florida, even in the current interest rate environment.
Collectively, these 3 business lines have generated over $280 million in diversified non-CRE loans and we expect this trend to continue. To underscore this point, I point to the following data. Florida has the second highest number of HOAs nationwide, and the highest concentration of HOAs accounting for 67% of all homeowners. Our association banking activities have grown its deposit book to $125 million and generated $54 million in new loans in over the past year. In regards to SBA lending, there are currently 2.8 million small businesses in Florida that represent over 90% of all business in the state with a 5.5% corporate tax rate, Florida has become one of the best states in the nation for small business start-ups.
Recognizing this opportunity, we are in the process of developing a new initiative to further serve our owner-operated businesses with small ticket SBA financing. We plan to announce this shortly. In January 2022, we launched our newest lending vertical, yard financing, focused on high net worth individuals and a state that has the highest number of registered recreational boating vessels in the country with more than 1 million in total. Again, since the launching of this business in January 2022, we have generated $97 million in low leverage short duration quality loans. Ongoing development of new client-centric products and business lines is part of our DNA. We recognize profitable business opportunities, and we develop them and technology plays a big role in these plans.
At U.S. Century Bank, we believe that tech modernization is a forever process, working in lockstep with production to consistently improve our performance. On May 1, this coming Monday, we will be going live with Abrigo our choice for a new loan operating system that will dynamically coordinate the entire loan process from application to underwriting to closing and booking. Our new LOS will make us more responsive to our clients by digitally coordinating the loan approval process experience across the board. The next several quarters, we'll see the delivery of multiple tech products, including Zelle for small business, Pigeon real-time payment solution and robotics process automation with more in the works. By proactively responding to our clients' needs for digital business solutions, we expand our share of wallet with nonlending transaction banking products and deepen relationships to improve our service model.
I now would like to open the floor for Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes with Michael Rose with Raymond James.
Yes, maybe just wanted to start on loan growth. And I appreciate the slide is always on loan production. It's obviously slowing, I think, for you and everybody else. How much of that is you guys intentionally pulling back versus any sort of slowdown in the market? Obviously, I understand that Florida is a much stronger place. You threw out some statistics, Luis, that I think are really, really important here. Just trying to get a sense because it is obviously implying a pretty decent deceleration from this quarter's growth. And I assume that some of the growth was just prior commitments coming up, but would just love some greater color...
Well, yes, Mike. Like I said, the loan demand has slowed specifically on the CRE sector, clearly, with prime at 8%, there's a lot of -- or refinancing has pretty much gone away, and there's just a lot of projects that don't work at that level and investors are kind of sitting on the sideline, Notwithstanding our pipeline going into the second quarter is very strong, and we're very bullish on it. About 65% of that pipeline is non-CRE, and we're very pleased. It's in all areas that I mentioned on the SBA side, on the HOA side, on the yacht financing, equipment financing. So I think our people have done a really good job of diversifying things. And again, this is something that didn't happen last quarter. We've been at it for the last 7 years. So I think that the efforts that we put into it are going to are going to provide good results. But there's no question that the CRE market has slowed down.
That's helpful. And then maybe for you, Rob, I appreciate the color that the margin will be down. On the one hand, growth continues, and I think you said that you expect to grow balances -- deposit balances from here. But you had the full quarter impact of the kind of the excess liquidity that's been put on you and everybody else. Can you give us a sense of magnitude for what we can kind of expect for margin compression in the second quarter, understanding that we'll probably see some stabilization in the back half of the year?
Yes. It's a good question. It's a very tough operating environment. I'm sure you've heard from many of your banks that they're experiencing margin compression. I would say in -- if we don't get more Fed rate increases, there's, I think, 2 scheduled in this upcoming quarter, May and June. We'd be down probably 10 to 15 basis points on the margin, most likely closer to the 15%. But if we get increases in May and in June are 1 or 2 of them, then we're certainly going to be past that and could be 15 to 20 basis points down.
That's helpful. And then maybe just finally for me, the expenses were a touch higher than what I was kind of looking for. Just as you guys are balancing cost containment efforts with ongoing investments in the franchise and I heard you mention the SBA rollout here in the short term. How should we think about the cadence of expense growth from here just balancing the puts and takes?
Yes. So I think our expense base is going to be fairly steady from our base today. If you look at Slide 18, we are about $10.1 million in the third quarter of last year, $10 million in the fourth quarter. We're just $10.2 million this quarter. We had built some open slots with some new hires, but you have the FICA type hitting in Q1. But I think we're going to try to hold that number at the current level. Certainly, expense control will be very critical as we move through '23 and probably into '24. So I would say the 10.2% is a good modeling from a quarterly basis near term.
Next question comes with Graham Dick with Piper Sandler.
So I appreciate all the color you guys gave on the deposit front. I just kind of wanted to talk about funding in general. It looks like the end-of-period number was about $15 million lower than the average. So I assume there must have -- or probably some movement there in the month of March around the banking crisis, which isn't unexpected and it's understandable given the unprecedented things we've seen. But I wanted to know kind of where those deposit balances have trended since the end of the quarter. And then also how that relates to your guys' strategy around borrowings. And if you think that deposit growth will be good enough in the coming quarter to pay down some of those borrowings you guys added in 1Q?
Okay. Yes, it is a great question. Certainly, with the unprecedented events that happened from March 10 forward, we did see some volatility. And I would just say, overall, some clients getting a little nervous. So there was a lot of education from our sales team about the ICS product. We did move some clients into the ICS. Some clients who had, I would say, the larger deposit balances decided to take a little bit of those deposits and move that around and spread that to other institutions. We didn't lose clients, but I would say there were some clients that minimize their deposits, not significantly. I mentioned the spot balances versus the average. It has leveled off in the time since quarter end.
We are seeing more people move to ICS. So I think you'll see the ICS number grow and then our uninsured deposits drop because we'll have in the ICS product. But overall, in terms of how we think about funding the balance sheet, I think loan growth is slowing. We're still trying to control our deposit costs. So we're very careful on who we're giving preferential rates to. They typically have to be core relationships. We do have people shopping their deposits, mainly their money market and CDs. So the incremental cost of the dollars coming in are pretty pricey.
And if the Fed raises rates, again, they're going to get more price, and that's going to lead to margin compression. We have no brokered CDs, but we would entertain a little bit of that, and I think we have some opportunities either with hedging opportunities or with brokered CDs to lower the cost of funds. But our preference is to bank our relationships and our clients and to win them over from our competitors, and I think we can do that. But I think the next couple of quarters are going to be challenging from a funding standpoint because all banks are having the same issues and they're all fighting for clients and some, they're doing it with rates.
Okay. That's helpful. Yes, everyone is seeing the crazy amount of funding pressure right now. So would it be safe to assume, I guess, borrowings and probably just are at least level from here through the next couple of quarters?
Yes. I would say we're going to have a heightened attention on liquidity. We might keep a little bit more in cash. And if that means having some borrowings on the books, we will. I don't think the borrowings will go up substantially from here. But I think current levels will probably carry the quarter.
Okay. I appreciate it. And then I guess just one last question. The $486,000 nonaccrual, I know it's tiny, but you guys have had amazing credit for the last over a year. So I'm just interested to hear what the loan was or any details around that you could share because it just outside the norm for you guys, I would say, even though it's still only 3 basis points of loans.
Yes. As you know, we do a fair amount of SBA 7(a) loans. This is the 25% on guarantee portion. That loan, we saw the remaining 75%. And actually, we audited that file and it's in perfect condition. This is a client that was trying to get rid of some debt that he acquired in the process of growing the company. We remain as friendly as we can be. He has another loan that is a 504 financing the building where he operates, that loan is completely current, no issues. And as I said, it has to go through the court process in order to go back to normal. At this point, we don't anticipate a charge-off there.
The next question comes from Brady Gailey with KBW.
So it was good to see U.S. Century active on the buyback in the quarter. If you look at where you repurchased the stock, it's cheaper today than it was then. I know you have some authorization left, but not a ton. Maybe just thoughts on how aggressive you could get on the buyback going forward?
Yes. So on the buyback, I mean, we bought it 1,174,000, 500,000 shares. We got 250,000 shares remaining. We did make those purchases prior to the March 10 kind of chaos that happened in the industry. And certainly, that has had an impact on the share price. We just think it's a great value. And banks across the industry are down significantly. I mean we're way down. I mean, you pick a name, your most popular and well-run banks, they're all down. And there's not a lack of buyers right now.
So putting capital to work, some of your stock is the best use of it. We prefer to make loans and use the capital to make loan balances. But right now, the price is very attractive. We have a Board meeting Monday, that topic will come up. But the 250,000 shares remaining at this price, I think we could be buyers -- and it's a little turbulent time. So there's a school of thought that you might want to preserve some capital. But certainly, it's very attractive at this price right now.
All right. And then I wanted to ask about anticipated deposit growth. As I look at the loan-to-deposit ratio, it's been ticking up for the last year. So I mean it's still relatively low at 86%, but your loan growth guide, as you said, is high single digit, low double digit. Do you think that deposits can grow at that same pace? Or will we continue to see the loan-to-deposit ratio tick up here?
Yes. I think you're going to continue to see it to tick up a little bit. I mean, prior to March 10, I would have said that we're making really good progress on funding our assets with core deposits. That has changed a little bit in the market. We are seeing a lot of competition on the money market and CD side, and it's being rate driven. So I think that we will have some borrowings and advances maybe some brokered CDs down the road. But certainly, I think you're going to see the loan to deposit move up a little bit. I've always said, like I prefer operating between 90% and 95% for kind of a really strong profitability profile. So if we're at what, 86% loan-to-deposit ratio, could it be closer to 90% next quarter, I think so.
All right. And then the size of the deferred tax asset, I think it was about a little over $42 million at the end of the year. Where did that balance finish at the end of March?
Yes. And I'll certainly give you kind of the -- there's lots of different pieces in there, Brady. The big piece that is kind of abnormal for a bank is the net operating loss piece for us. That has trended down over time. That's right at $19.9 million at the end of the quarter and you have been other timing differences between book and tax, and we can send over to you that quarterly number. But the NOL portion was 19.9%. I think at the end of the fourth quarter, that NL portion was 21.7%. If I recall, I can confirm that number. But certainly, as we continue to provide earnings, that number is going to come down.
Okay. And I know this is not a near-term idea probably. But if you guys did eventually decide to sell this company, like having a DTA that is the size that it currently is, like is that a limiting factor? Like would the buyer not be able to realize that full DTA upon the sale of the company?
The DTA is pretty tricky. Tax depending upon ownership type changes. If you just took roughly $20 million, we have $20 million, just under 20 million shares, it's like $1 a share right now, the impact. On a fully -- if you had to lose every bit of it, -- that doesn't always happen in ownership changes. So it's very situational, Brady. I think I'll speak for the management team. We've always said we're shareholder-focused. But right now, we prefer to run the company and provide the best returns we can for our shareholders.
The next question comes with Ross Haberman with RLH Investments.
I had a quick question about the uninsured deposits. You said, I guess, some of them are migrating to CDARS -- what would you -- are you actively trying to get that number to a lower level? And what's your thought about moving that down significantly over the next couple of quarters?
That's a good question, Ross. Again, as we have reiterated throughout the presentation. We are a commercial bank, and a lot of our deposits are larger on the HOA side, on the municipal side. And even on the commercial, we have a lot of clients that have been with us for many years. It maintained very large balances. That's just the nature of the bank we are. We contacted our top depository clients. Like I said, we spent a good 1.5 weeks talking to every single one of them. And they -- they were concerned about the industry, but not concerned about the bank, let's put it that way. A lot of them asked for information on ICS and we gave it to them. A lot of them have looked like they were going to do something.
And ultimately, when we contacted them and said, no, we're fine. So it's difficult to say, is that going to move things down. We did model it that if we moved the top 25 deposit relationships by size, we dropped this number down into the low 40s very, very quickly. It's just that they haven't been interested in doing it. So will they do it could happen. But we've done everything that we can to let them know that the product is available, and it's going to really going to be up to them. But our business model is not a retail model. It's a commercial bank. We also, in our -- we've got about $180 million in correspondent banking, and those banks -- it is what it is. That nobody's going to move deposits there.
And can I just ask one other question? Could you discuss the amount of participations you have in dollars? And -- sorry, one thing about the SBA, which you mentioned. What was the dollar amount of the unguaranteed portion which are on your books.
Yes. The dollar amount was about $1.8 million. The participated the amount that we sold in the market. As I said, we recently audited with the servicer that portion and the file is in good standing. We don't do a lot of participations. This is not a bank. Certainly, we may have -- and we do have a few participations with some local banks out of the need to minimize risk -- and in a few situations, we've been asked by bankers and banks that we've known for a while to participate with them for the same reasons. As I said, this is a bank where loan growth is not based on participation. We are not necessarily here to do that. We don't feel is something that we should do.
This concludes our Q&A session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Luis de la Aguilera for any closing remarks.
Thank you, Caroline. We're focused on delivering quarter-over-quarter as we've had since not only since the IPO, which is the new management team has gotten here. So with that said, we'll get back to work and see you next quarter.
Thank you. This conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.